Resources

This section provides links to current wildlife health information and resources using a number of different categories and areas of interest. News, resources and information focus on Australia but also include information from overseas. We hope this assists everyone finding out more about wildlife health topics of interest.

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A note about archived postings: Wildlife Health Australia migrated all of the postings from the "Bulletin Board" on our previous website into this new "Resources" web page. Please note these posting are in the process of being removed or updated by WHA staff, postings dated prior to 2010 may be out of date and have expired URLs.

Eureka Alert Article

28/10/2014 Eureka Alert Article: “Scientists call for controls on imports to check deadly fungus' spread. A deadly disease that is wiping out salamanders in parts of Europe will inevitably reach the U.S. through the international wildlife trade unless steps are taken to halt its spread, says University of Maryland amphibian expert Karen Lips. The recently described fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, has caused a crash in wild populations of fire salamanders in the Netherlands. After the fungus was discovered in Europe last year, Lips joined an international team of experts that tested more than 5,000 amphibians from four continents. Their results, published Oct. 31 in the journal Science, show the fungus probably originated in Southeast Asia 30 million years ago and reached Europe through the international trade in Asian newts, which are popular with amphibian fanciers.

US Geological Survey Newsroom

29/9/2014 USGS Newsroom: “Amphibians, including threatened and endangered species like the Oregon Spotted Frog, may benefit from a recent study that highlights the use of promising tools that can assess the risk of disease exposure….. For this study, scientists coupled sophisticated molecular tools with advanced statistics to evaluate whether the amphibian chytrid fungus occupied ponds and wetlands. First, they used DNA extracted from water samples to test for the presence and abundance of the amphibian chytrid fungus. Then they used an occupancy modeling method to estimate the chance of a false-negative result, or the likelihood of not detecting the pathogen when it was actually present. The study found chytrid fungus in approximately 61 percent of sampled ponds and wetlands. The fungus was present year round at the long-term monitoring site, but its density was highest in the spring. Beside seasonal variability, elevation also played a role in the presence of the fungus. Chytrid fungus was more common in amphibian breeding habitats at lower elevations than those habitats at higher elevations……”

Genome Web Article

17/10/2014 Genome Web Article: “A new study suggests related, but previously undescribed, Ranavirus species are wreaking havoc on a range of amphibian hosts in Spain. As they reported online in Current Biology this week, researchers from the UK and Spain relied on a combination of PCR-based testing, targeted sequencing, and comparative genomics to track down two extensively virulent Ranaviruses that appear to have emerged in Spain's Picos de Europa National Park…..”

Geese May Be Helping to Spread Frog-Killing Chytrid Fungus
Scientific American - blogs.scientificamerican.com http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2012/04/19/geese-may-be-helping-to-spread-frog-killing-fungus “The frog-killing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which causes the disease chytridiomycosis, has been blamed for about 100 amphibian extinctions around the globe since it was first observed in 1998, but clear information on exactly how it spreads has remained a mystery. Now a team of scientists working in Belgium have come up with one potential clue: the chytrid fungus may sometimes be carried to new habitats on the toes of waterfowl such as geese.

Deadly Frog Fungus at Work in the Wild
ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120425193048.htm “The fungal infection that has killed a record number of amphibians worldwide leads to deadly dehydration in frogs in the wild, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University researchers. High levels of an aquatic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) disrupt fluid and electrolyte balance in wild frogs, the scientists say, severely depleting the frogs' sodium and potassium levels and causing cardiac arrest and death.

[PUBLICATION] Todd, BT et al., (2012) Use of toe clips as a nonlethal index of mercury accumulation and maternal transfer in amphibians. Ecotoxicology. 21, 3, 882-887. http://www.springerlink.com/content/j74762v5x7274224/
Abstract: “Nonlethal indices of contaminant exposure can facilitate research on the accumulation and effects of contaminants in wildlife. Here, we tested the efficacy of using amputated toes (“toe clips”), a common byproduct when marking amphibians in population and genetic studies, to determine mercury (Hg) concentrations in amphibians…………Our results indicate that amputated toes are effective for identifying Hg concentrations in amphibians

Nature article >> 483: 520–522 (29/3/2012) “When researchers created strains of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that could spread easily between mammals, they argued that their work would aid in surveillance, by identifying mutations to watch for in the wild. But an analysis by Nature paints a dire picture of how animal flu viruses are being monitored. In 2010, the world’s poultry population was estimated at 21 billion, yet only around 1,000 flu sequences from 400 avian virus isolates were collected — and many countries that are home to billions of farmed chickens, ducks and pigs contributed few or none. ....."

Common North American frog identified as carrier of deadly amphibian disease [Plus Publication]
Eureka Alert: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/sfsu-cna030512.php “Known for its distinctive "ribbit" call, the noisy Pacific chorus frog is a potent carrier of a deadly amphibian disease, according to new research published today in the journal PLoS ONE. Just how this common North American frog survives chytridiomycosis may hold clues to protect more vulnerable species from the disease. PUBLICATION: Reeder NMM, Pessier AP, Vredenburg VT (2012) A Reservoir Species for the Emerging Amphibian Pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Thrives in a Landscape Decimated by Disease. PLoS ONE 7(3): e33567. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033567